Religious
Wedding Ceremony
by Charlie Hull
Today
on this beautiful
Every
day you live, you learn how to love.
Take time with each other.
Restore each other’s soul with loving words. Receive love with as much understanding as
you give it. Find treasures within
yourselves, then you can share them. Commit random acts of love and kindness,
have an open heart and a sincere mind.
Be interested in each other’s happiness, from this comes security and
strength. All that we love deeply
becomes a part of us so, on this day of your marriage, commit yourselves freely
and fully to each other and without reservation.
The
two of you have come here to start a new beginning in your lives and to make a
commitment that from this day forward you will walk together. Both of you will bring new wisdom, strength,
personality as you commit yourselves to a lifetime journey together.
May
you look forward to the years ahead in giving, sharing and getting to know each
other, and may you truly open your hearts for this opportunity to love one another.
Marriage
is a gift from God and God’s gift is human love given so that a husband and
wife can know each other with mutual care and companionship. God’s gift is also
joy, given so you may share your new life together with your family and your
friends.
Marriage
is a commitment to life to the best that you can find and bring out of each
other. It offers opportunity for sharing and growth no other human relationship
can equal, a physical and emotional joining promised for a lifetime.
Within
the circle of its love, marriage encompasses all of life’s most important
relationships. A wife and a husband are each other’s best friend, confidant,
lover, teacher, listener and critic.
Marriage
understands and forgives the mistakes that life is unable to avoid. It encourages
and nurtures new life, new experiences, and new ways of expressing love through
all the many seasons of life.
When
you, pledge to love and care for each other in marriage, you create a spirit
unique to yourselves, which binds you closer than any spoken or written words
can ever do. Marriage is a promise, made in your two hearts; you who are in
love with each other and who willingly will nurture and fulfill that promise
for the rest of your lifetime together.
Now
with our prayers we are here to give the two of you support as you freely give
yourselves to one another.
Blessed
God, creator of all life, look with favor upon this man and this woman who
stand before you today joined in marriage.
Give them the wisdom and fortitude to navigate smoothly through life’s
bumpy roads together; make each a source of encouragement and strength to one
another in times of difficulty or sorrow. Let them be companions in happiness
and sharers of each other’s joy. Help
them to be good listeners to one another and let their love grow and deepen as
they experience the wonders and mysteries of life together. Enable them to recognize their faults and
seek out each other’s forgiveness with grace.
Keep their marriage in perfect harmony with one another and with the universe
in which they dwell...Amen
As
the rings symbolize longevity, the leis symbolize the temporary. The beautiful
blossoms of the lei will wilt and die quickly. This is to remind you to take
your marriage one-day at a time, for life is both very precious and
fragile. Never take each other for
granted. Always see the best in each
other and each day that you are together let your marriage and lives be filled
with the beauty and grace of the lei.
I
(Bride) (Groom), take you forever more to be my husband
/wife. To join with you and to share with you all that is to come to give and
to receive, to speak and to listen, to inspire and to respond. In all our life
together to be loyal and faithful and to cherish you with my whole being, as
long as we both shall live.
I give you this ring as a sign of my love,
knowing that love is precious and fragile, yet strong. I give you this ring as a sign of our love,
an ever-present symbol of the vows we have made here this day. I give you this ring as I give you my love.
You are my beloved and you are my very best friend.
And
now in oneness with the spirit of God and the Great Spirit of Aloha, and as
witnessed by those who are present and those who are absent, yet thinking of
you, and wish for you enduring love and happiness. Through the power invested
in me by the state of
Trust
in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding but in
all your ways, acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.
.